


An Essential Piece

by One_Awkward_Cookie



Series: An Essential Piece [1]
Category: teen wolf - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe-Office, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-08
Updated: 2013-03-11
Packaged: 2017-11-28 13:52:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,662
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/675126
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/One_Awkward_Cookie/pseuds/One_Awkward_Cookie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Stiles is Derek's really clumsy secretary."</p><p> - requested by demensmonstrum</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

“With all due respect sir, you aren’t my client. Your company is. And the only chance at escaping this entire fiasco without a media circus lies within a settlement,” Derek leaned over his desk, feigning a smile of reassurance.

Honestly, he never met a client more annoyingly difficult than Jackson Whittemore. Here the kid was, risking an entire company’s bankruptcy, and he still wouldn’t budge out of his self-centered ego.

“With all due respect,” Jackson mimicked with a sneer, “I am the company. I am your client. And if I don’t like your ideas then I’ll take my business elsewhere. There’s a stream of corporate lawyers in New York that are dying to get their hands on my case.”

“Yes,” Derek hummed, “And yet you came here first. Probably because you know that I’m the best in field. I doubt any other lawyer would be able to fish you out of the hole you dug yourself in.”

The two stared each other down, neither willing to back off. The last time Hale Inc. handled a case with the Whittemores, Jackson was still some stupid high school brat. Now, he was CEO.

Unfortunately, that didn’t make him any less stupid.

Derek didn’t actually want to let go of the case. He respected Jackson’s parents and was loyal to the majority of his clients. He just wished Jackson would stop being so damn difficult.

Before either of them could conclude the staring contest, a loud crash echoed outside of the glass office doors, distracting both men. Derek looked over Jackson’s shoulder, already predicting the source of the commotion.

Of course it was Stiles Stilinski, aka the worst secretary ever.

Right now, Stiles was mopping up a coffee spill that somehow resulted in knocking over an entire drawer of case files.  He was bent over the heap of papers, suit jacket discarded to the floor, sleeves rolled up to his elbows, and a furious red blush coating the back of his neck all the way up to his cheeks. Derek could see him muttering what must have been some epic monologue of anger at the world, as he flailed around the mess. Stiles reached out, grabbing a random paper, to wipe some of the coffee that was already staining the office carpets. However, he seemed to do a double take at the paper, before his head shot upwards to meet Derek’s eyes.

With a sheepish grin, Stiles dusted himself off and hopped over his disaster zone. He pushed open Derek’s office door, eyes scanning over Jackson nervously. “Um about the September 23rd trial,” he chewed his lip anxiously.

Derek sighed in resignation, “Stiles.”

“I-I’m only wondering if it’s slightly maybe possible that we’re over that case because I maybe possibly used some of the documents as a sponge. And it’s not like the trial was that fucki-ahh” he cut off when he saw the look Derek was giving him. He was often berated by Derek not to use vulgar language, especially in front of the clients.

“I mean I totally didn’t say fuck- I mean-shit-okay I’m just going to stop talking because I’m a fucking idiot except there goes that word again but to be fair fuck wasn’t actually always considered a curse word, in fact if you want to look into the etymology of the term then we’d probably realize there were worse things out there and at least it’s not like I always pull offensive gestures at work like biting my thumb, although I did actually bit my thumb once at my high school chemistry teacher but everyone knew Mr. Harris had it out for me and -”

“Maybe,” Derek let his voice thunder over Stiles’ before his rant could take a turn for the worse, “you should worry about the tornado of papers and coffee stains. Before Laura catches sight of it.”

Stiles shuddered, “Or worse _, Lydia_.”

Recovered from his previous panic, Stiles grinned mischievously, “On it boss,” before giving an exaggerated salute and heading back outside.

Derek ducked his head to hide the smile he was slowly forming. But it was hard not to smile when faced with Stiles’ antics.

“Ugh, I don’t know how you can stand him,” Jackson’s voice interrupted Derek’s amusement. He looked up to see his young client rising to stand, already wrenching out his cellphone to flicker through.

“I mean, if you’re going to have a shitty assistant. At least let them have a redeeming quality. I remember I had one, Valerie,” he whistled low but didn’t glance away from his cellphone, “Tits definitely outweighed brains in her case.”

Derek’s face had officially drawn back into its signature scowl. Impatiently, he tapped the settlement papers in front of him, “Have you reached a decision?”

Jackson tore his eyes away from his phone, doing an honest to god pout. He reached over Derek’s desk, snatched a pen, and scribbled his signature in the appropriate places. Derek thought Jackson was lucky he had good intentions, because any other lawyer would trample over a client dumb enough to sign without reading through a document first.

Clearly bored with their interaction, Jackson huffed in annoyance after the final signing and instantly marched towards the door. “Don’t contact me until the settlement is through.” And with that he sauntered out of the office.

Once Jackson’s figure disappeared around the corner, some of the tension between Derek’s shoulders released. He stood up and walked around to the other side of his desk. Stiles was still outside the glass doors, gathering the last of the mess together. Derek leaned against a bookshelf, watching with a small smile.

He really didn’t appreciate Jackson insulting Stiles. In Derek’s opinion, Stiles was a fantastic secretary. Okay, so maybe personal boundaries were outside his realm of possibility. And he did have very askew ideas on what qualified as quiet time in the office. Stiles did always forget to record messages and forward emails. He had his own color coded filing system that changed weekly, making it impossible for Derek to decipher. And he had a habit of hanging out in Derek’s office more than he did at his designated desk.

 But Derek thought there were a lot of good things about Stiles too.

Like the way Stiles always filled uncomfortable silences with mindless chatter. Or when his eyes lit up with passion over a particular case. How many nights did Derek spend trying to decide if they were more of a chestnut or honey brown?

Then there was the way he always insisted on dragging Derek to his hometown for dinner because he was “an essential piece” of his life.

And Derek loved when Stiles chewed his pens and sucked on highlighter caps, before eventually pursing his lips at the workload.

Most importantly, there was the way his tie eventually undid itself throughout the day until finally revealing a bit of pink collarbone, with the same three moles peeking out of his shirt. Derek wondered idly if there were more small brown dots to discover. Perhaps across Stiles’ naked back or chest.

At that thought, he froze.

Employers were definitely not supposed to carry that train of thought towards their employees. Derek shouldn’t think of Stiles’ beyond office duties. Except…

“Fuck,” he muttered under his breath. 


	2. Bullshit and Sarcasm

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stiles Stilinski was started working at Hale Corp two years ago. And as far as first impressions go, Derek Hale was not interested. Until their first actual interaction, which really did a number on poor Derek.
> 
> Set two years prior to the first chapter.
> 
> I am horrible at summaries.

Derek stared at the pile mismatching documents, hoping that the power of will could simply make them disappear. There were at least three hundred forms to be filed away in the correct order. And although Derek’s office was normally kept rather neat, this was more than he could handle alone.

Unfortunately, human resources thought they were being funny when they sent this spastastic joke of a secretary to him. It was Derek’s initial plan to fire the kid, but with this amount of work, he’d just have to hope the idiot could manage until the end of the week. Then Derek would definitely fire him.

He sat at his desk, back turned to the span of glass windows that revealed the view of New York City. The sun was about to set so this would probably be all night job.

Shuffling through the stacks of papers, Derek found his office phone found and dialed in the assistant’s desk. As it began to ring, he realized he had no clue what the kid’s name was. Something that started with an S…..or was it a C?

“Hello?”

Shit.

Derek grumbled angrily before settling for a more neutral option, “You. In my office. Now.”

He hung up before waiting for a response. He figured he’d catch the secretary’s name somewhere throughout the night, if possible.

The office door swung open and in bounded a lanky guy. His mouth hung open, with an odd red flush tinting upwards his neck. By the way he was breathing heavily, Derek figured he’d rushed over here. They stared at each other for an uncomfortable minute, as this was the first time they truly interacted since the day Laura introduced them.

“Take a seat,” Derek said, the picture of calm.

He felt a little strange watching as his assistant walk towards him. His eyes were blown wide, as panic shone through their honey brown irises. As he began to reach for a seat, his limbs bounced around loosely as if they were unsure where to go next.

But Derek never took his eyes off him. Something about his extremely awkward movements….well they could only be described as…..interesting.

The boy began to squirm in his chair from being under Derek’s scrutiny. He furiously tapped a rhythm with his hands onto his knees, avoiding solid eye contact with Derek.

Finally, Derek decided to snap out of his trance and got to the point,

“As you can see, we have a load of paperwork to get through so you’re going to have to work overtime tonight. I need to ensure this gets completed as soon as possible because –“

“Because you have two meetings and one conference tomorrow,” the boy cut him off. He was finally looking back at Derek, shoulders relaxed a few inches. If Derek had to guess, he’d say that the guy was relieved to be called in for work and not being fired. That almost made him feel guilty. Almost.

He cleared his throat, “Good, you know the schedule.”

“Well, I am your secretary so it’s kind of my thing.”

Derek quirked an eyebrow at that.

“I’m glad you feel comfortable enough to relish in a little sarcasm.”

The boy ran a hand over his head, scratching over his buzz cut. He sighed dramatically, “Fuck, dude, I am sorry but that’s just my natural lingo. I mean my Dad always said I was bilingual, I speak fluent bullshit and sarcasm. Which is totally unfair given the context under which he said it but more or less truthful. And I took Spanish in college with my best friend Scott because I figured I could work off him seeing as he already speaks it. But then all he ever did to help was repeatedly inform me that I sound like an asshole even in a different language. The asshole comment? Totally unnecessary because honestly, sarcasm is just a form of wit and charm and generally harmless. Wouldn’t you think so? But I guess you wouldn’t because so far all I’ve gotten from you is a serious case of dry wit.”

He stopped for a soft gasp of air, and then clasped his mouth shut as if to restrain himself from anymore word vomit. Derek blinked at him, stunned and slightly amazed. That ramble had to at least have broken a world record.

They shared another awkward stare down before Derek shook his head, fighting an oncoming smile, “Not many people in this office refer to me as ‘dude’.”

The kid broke out into a lopsided grin that brightened up his entire face, “All you took from that were my mannerisms? Seriously?”

At this point, Derek gave up on holding back his smile. “And I caught the curse word, don’t make it a habit.”

It was after that comment; Derek realized he had just subconsciously decided to keep his new secretary around. Looking at him now, watching the boy lean over to take a better look at the paperwork. He figured it couldn’t be so bad.

“By the way, my name is Stiles,” he said, not looking away from the forms.

Derek’s mouth twisted into a halfhearted scowl, “I knew that.”

Stiles raised his eyes to meet Derek’s, sporting a smirk that clearly mimicked his disbelief. “I’m sure you did.”

 He then began to hum happily as he started on the workload.

Watching him with a genuine curiosity, Derek wondered how much longer Stiles would stick around. He resolved to stay on the professional end of the rope. If Stiles was a decent secretary, he could stay for as long as he likes. If not, Derek would let him go because it’s the responsible thing to do.

You don’t hire people just because you like them, right?

**TWO YEARS LATER**

“STILES. OFFICE. NOW.”

Derek was stressed and panicked and he was seriously on the verge of ripping his own hair out.

Sensing the level of distress, Stiles slipped into his office head hung like a shameful puppy.

“Yes, Mr. Hale?”

Oh, and he knew he was in trouble too. Stiles only addressed Derek formally when he was in trouble.

“Do you want to tell me why the Starks’ case files are all printed in hot pink ink?”

Stiles bit his lip, sending Derek a sheepish smile, “Because pink really compliments your eyes?”

With a heavy sigh, Derek leaned against his bookshelf, standing a few feet across from Stiles. “I told you to get Isaac on the fifth floor to replace the copy machine ink weeks ago. That’s not even something I should have to tell you. It’s your responsibility, remember?”

“I know! There was just so much shit-“

_“Language.”_

“—stuff to do! And I guess it maybe sort of kind of slipped my mind. Oh god, please don’t kill me.”

Derek was levering Stiles with a heavy glare. But despite the cracking voice, Stiles still stood tall and kept direct eye contact. That was just something he did. Since the first time they worked in each other’s space and passed by a hurdle of clashing personalities, Stiles looked at Derek. He always looked at him.

And Derek’s anger always withered slightly. It’s probably why Stiles managed to stick around all this time. Despite knowing this, Derek still liked to pretend he had some control over their situation.

“Hey,” Stiles said in a small voice, instantly releasing some of the tension in Derek’s back, “It’s been a crazy week, I know. But there is still an hour until the Starks get here. I’ll run up and down this entire building until I find a functioning copier. And when you get through with that meeting, we can drink coffee and plot the demise of all copy machines. Or better yet, we can form a petition, demanding that Hale Corp pays better attention to the basic tools necessary for a functioning assistant.”

He stepped towards Derek with a hand already reaching out. Derek closed his eyes and sighed through his nose, feeling Stiles rub a hand up and down his arm for comfort.

“I should have fired you when I had the chance. You’re impossible.”

Stiles snorted, “That idea is impossible because you luuuuuuuuuuuurrrve me.”

Eyes snapped open, Derek scowled at him angrily.

He didn’t realize how close they were standing. He should be used to it, because Stiles had a habit of being up in his space. But he still couldn’t help but feel the room spin, watching the laughter dance in Stiles’ eyes.

With an ear to ear grin, satisfied by some imaginary achievement, Stiles stepped away and head out the door,

“I’ll get to work, Derek”

And he just left Derek standing there, trying to compose some coherent thought. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really didn't plan on writing more but you guys were so persuasive. Thank you so much!!!
> 
> Find me on tumblr at margaeryty.tumblr.com


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